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If you are with Three, you could be due a refund or be allowed to leave your contract early without having to deal with a penalty.

They have been fined €575,000 by the telecoms watchdog Comreg for unfairly dealing with contracts changes to 1.3m customers in early 2017.

They never explained the changes properly although they did set up a telephone line to deal with queries but it wasn't supervised regularly.

"There was a failure by Three to properly advise its customers of the nature of the contract changes proposed," said Comreg’s enforcement notice.

"And to adequately facilitate their right to exit their contracts without penalty, after being notified of the proposed contractual changes.

"There was a failure by Three to ensure that its conditions and procedures for contract termination did not act as a disincentive to consumers changing service provider."

Comreg said in their notice that Three Ireland has promised to do the following for its customers:

To notify Three of their cancellation request “by phone, post, online chat, or by visiting a retail store” and “Three will promptly confirm such cancellation requests using the same channel of communication”
That its call centres will be “fully resourced” to deal with all expected call volumes on foot of any contract change notifications issued by Three.
To refund any customer that was charged an early termination fee or any other penalty as a result of withdrawal from their contract within the ‘Regulation 14 Window’ of time (30 days).
To re-notifiy “certain customers” of their contract changes that came into effect on 3 April 2017 and advised the customers of their right to withdraw without penalty if they did not wish to accept the changes.
To contact all customers “that it could identify” that tried and were unable to contact Three on the 1800 number provided in their contract change notification.

For more information, it is worth having a look at the full notice or to call into your nearest Three store.

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